COPMI Project Update - (Apr 29, 2005)

AICAFMHA:
promoting mental health for young Australians
Australian Infant, Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Association Ltd
ABN 87 093 479 022

'Saving Francesca' package

Thankyou to all who have contributed to the review of the draft 'Saving
Francesca' package for teachers. We hope to have the final draft available
on the website next month. I was interviewed on ABC Radio's 'Life Matters' on
Monday 4th April with Melina Marchetta, author of 'Saving Francesca' and have
received favourable feedback about the programme. Julie McCrossin, the
programme's host, did an excellent job of encouraging people who rang in to
share their tips and comments from their own experiences about supporting
families and children affected by parented mental illness.

RANZCP Position Statement

The RANZCP is to be congratulated on the development of their Position
Statement regarding Children of Parents with a Mental Illness which is now
available on the public section of their website at
http://www.ranzcp.org/publicarea/posstate.asp. The College has also
nominated a staff member to liaise with the COPMI project regarding support
for workforce development in this field.

Capacity Building 'Stories from the Real World'

We are currently finalising a template for people to record on the website
their activities in relation to capacity building in the 'copmi' area. (e.g.
stories about services' experiences in such areas as workforce development,
resource allocation, and organisational development in relation to 'copmi' and
their families).

'copmi' stream at TheMHS 2005

I have assisted in reviewing some of the 'copmi'-related abstracts for TheMHS
this year and it looks like we have enough papers, workshops, debates etc for
a day and a half to two days of a focus of 'copmi' within the conference.
Congratulations to all those who have taken the time to contribute an abstract
and I look forward to seeing many of you in Adelaide from August 30th to
September 2nd for the conference.

Elizabeth Fudge
Project Manager, COPMI Initiative
Ph (08) 8161 6859 Fax (08) 81616983
fudgee@wch.sa.gov.au
PO Box 387, Stepney SA 5069